Monthly Archives: October 2002

As reported here over the last several days, the Minneapolis Star Tribune concedes that Norm Coleman’s campaign is drawing crowds and gaining momentum. We believe that Coleman is now leading Mondale in both the Democrats’ polls and the Republicans’ polls. We will report further as soon as we have more inside information. »

The Washington Times offers an optimistic take on the FBI’s progress in infiltrating and neutralizing al Qaeda cells in the U.S. By the way, Deacon, we should tell our readers that Michelle Malkin is a Power Line reader. She sent us an email saying we have “a GREAT blog!” We, of course, are far bigger fans of her than she is of us. »

Michelle Malkin is a great favorite of Power Line, especially for her efforts on immigration issues. In this piece, she notes that no one seems to know how old accused sniper John Lee Malvo really is. This uncertainty points to a basic problem in our immigration system. As Malkin explains, minors who enter the U.S. illegally qualify for exemption from immediate deportation. They are automatically released to any family member »

Yup, Deacon, he’s dead. Bin Laden’s been laiden six feet under (apologies, for the third time, to Mark Steyn). After the election is over, we’ll go back to a more eclectic style of commentary. For the moment, before we return to the various hot Senate races, I want to note this contretemps. England’s Culture Minister has denounced this year’s Turner Prize entrants as “conceptual bullshit.” This drew predictable howls from »

James Robbins, a National Review contributor on security issues, finds evidence that al Qaeda is in disarray. For example, some al Qaeda money is missing, apparently looted by middlemen no longer committed to the struggle. And al Qaeda no longer appears to be speaking with one voice. According to Robbins, its messages are uncoordinated and sometimes contradictory, varying in tone and style. Robbins suspects that bin Laden is dead and »

The invaluable Real Clear Politics brings together the latest poll data. President Bush’s numbers are holding remarkably steady in the mid-60′s, notwithstanding Dick Morris’ moment of hysteria a few days ago. Bush is doing the right thing by touring the country, helping his party to hold the House and, we hope, take back the Senate from its unelected, illegitimate obstructionists. The generic Congressional preference poll is dead even, a good »

More on the Wellstone death rally: The Star Tribune’s top state political reporter is Dane Smith. I called him to ask about the Capitol Hill Blue story that we post below and offered to e-mail it to him. After cross-examining me regarding my identity and my employer, he asked me to summarize the story. He interrrupted me to say that he knew the story was false. I asked how. He »

Matt Drudge has obtained the text of Walter Mondale’s first radio ad, which is just now hitting the airwaves. Mondale has lost no time in going negative; the ad attacks Norm Coleman for promoting free trade. The strange thing about this is that Mondale has spent most of the last eighteen years as a lawyer in private firms, specializing in international law. At Dorsey & Whitney, a Minneapolis law firm, »

More on the Wellstone death rally: Now the lying about it, exposed courtesy of Capitol Hill Blue’s “Democratic operatives planned, engineered Wellstone political rally.” They even planned Jeff Blodgett’s “apology.” »

More on the Wellstone death rally: Trunk and Rocket Man have already made the most salient points about the disgusting memorial rally for Senator Wellstone. As an aside, I would add that the event may have been, in part, a release of pent up frustration among middle-aged Democrats who yearn to be back in 1972 nominating George McGovern. To Democrats like Clinton, Gore, and Harkin, Wellstone must have seemed like »

Trunk’s comments on Alan Page cause me to think about the current campaign by “civil rights” lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran, to coerce the NFL into hiring more African-American head coaches. The NFL is negotiating with Cochran and his colleagues over this. Cochran’s group is pushing a plan whereby teams that hire African-Americans will be awarded extra draft picks. The Washington Post reports that Players Association president Gene Upshaw, an African »

The Economist is no friend of Israel, in my estimation. However, its take on the Labor Party’s departure from the national unity government is quite similar to those of the Jerusalem Post and DebkaFile that appear below. The Economist notes that Labor Party leader Ben-Eliezer had been looking for a pretext to leave the govenment for some time, in order to bolster his sagging popularity within his party. It reports »

Don Lambro of the Washington TImes reports that the big-three Democratic strategists — Carville, Shrum, and pollster Stanley Grennberg — are advising Democratic candidates not to play up the economy as an election issue in the final days of the campaign. Why? Because Greenberg’s polls show that the Republicans have a one-point lead on who can best handle the economy. Lambro cites the Georgia Senate race as exhibit A. Democratic »

Hugh Hewitt on the death rally: As part of our continuing effort to dwell on the significance of the Wellstone death rally of Tuesday evening, we respectfully direct your attention to Hugh Hewitt’s outstanding World Net Daily column, “Using tragedy for political gain.” »

Mike Erlandson, Chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Party, was on the radio this morning talking about the backlash against the Wellstone pep rally. His repeated mea culpas failed to mollify the callers, all of whom were hostile. The most significant point, however, was that Erlandson was twice asked how, according to current Democratic polling, the backlash was affecting the Coleman/Mondale race. Erlandson acknowledged that there had been “damage,” but refused »

Robert Novak has a column this morning in which he reports that Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page was interested in replacing Senator Wellstone as the Democratic candidate. Based on anonymous Democratic sources, Novak reports that “the DFL apparently did not want to risk running the African-American Page in an overwhelmingly Caucasian state, and Page was swiftly discouraged.” The column is “Mondale gambit shows Dems’ audacity.” Novak’s strength as a »